Blair used Cherie's miscarriage grief to protect Iraq strategy

London, May 12 : In her new biography, former British PM Tony Blair's wife Cherie reveals her heartbreak about a miscarriage in 2002 - and how her husband used it to protect strategy on Iraq.

In 'Speaking for Myself', Mrs Blair reveals her astonishment at falling pregnant at the age of 47, just three years after she had son Leo.

"Needless to say, I was astonished. Leo's birth has seemed like a miracle and here I was nearly three years older. Although the idea was daunting to say the least I realised it would be nice for Leo not to be what amounted to an only child," Times Online quotes her, as writing.

Her husband's reaction however, was very different.

According to her, he said: "I'm not sure I want to be a father at 50."

A few weeks later however, Mrs Blair reveals her heartbreak when a scan showed that she had miscarried.

"It was the same radiographer as before and she was really excited, going on about how rare it was for someone my age to have a naturally conceived baby," she writes.

Then as she was moving the sensor across her stomach, the radiographer stopped and told Cherie: "There's no heartbeat, Mrs Blair. I'm afraid the baby's dead."

After informing her husband about the miscarriage, Cherie reveals how Blair and Alistair Campbell, his communications chief, called to tell her that the media had to be informed so that delaying a planned holiday to France would not send out wrong signals about the planned Iraq campaign.

"I couldn't believe it. There I was, bleeding, and they were talking about what was going to be the line to the press. I put down the receiver and lay there staring at the ceiling as pain began to grip," Mrs Blair writes.